Homicide Rates In North And South America

When it comes to homicide rates you will find the highest level to be located in Baseterre (Saint Kitts and Nevis) followed by Caracas (Venezuela) in second place.

The lowest homicide rate can be found in Santiago de Chile (Chile)

Over the years, the world has lost many lives through homicide. Despite the security strategies and creation of laws, this is a crime that has never been eradicated. Although homicide is seen in many parts of the world, there are areas that have higher rates than others. The regions that stand out in the statistics provided by the United Nations Office on Drug and Crime (2012 Survey) are North and South American cities

There has been a general fall in the rates of homicide in most parts of the world but North and South America. The parts with highest numbers are Latin American cities. The city with the highest homicide rate per 100, 000 population was found to be Basseterre in St. Kits and Nevis. The population of the country is small but the rate of homicide is very high at 131.6.

Sao Paulo which had initially been ranked high dropped but we cannot downplay the rates because these are human lives involved. The list goes on and as you would expect, New York and Mexico City are not left out although they come at number 17 and 20 respectively.

Homicide cases occur in different circumstances and are caused by many factors. The most common events that lead to the murders are robberies, gang fights, sexual violence and familial disputes.

There are various factors that contribute to rise in homicide cases. Most of these prevail in the North and South America cities that were top in the list of the homicide cases. Among the top causes is drug trafficking. Rivalry tends to boil up among drug cartels especially if they are competing for market. Because of this, killings will occur frequently due to disputes and supremacy battles among different groups. Generally, a population on drugs is likely to be violent.

Another cause that will obviously trigger homicide is the availability of firearms. The presence of guns amongst individuals fans homicide because if people have the arms, they will find themselves using them even with the slightest provocation. Firearms freely flow into the cities with homicide cases and mostly the arms come from the US. Proximity to the United States is also a factor.

Familial disputes lead to a significant number homicide cases. This normally comes about because of unequal powers and roles of the family members. The figures show that females are the ones mostly affected by these types of homicide compared to males. The percentage of females who died this way is almost seven times that of males.

Finally another observable factor is the security system in the regions that have high rates of homicide. The national security in these areas is not as tight as that seen in the parts that have less cases. Therefore beefing up security can work to bring down the numbers.

Homicide in Latin America is higher than most parts of the world but with the causes known, remedies can be found. The rest of the world needs to be involved for a successful course because the crime is not confined.